a new book by pulitzer prize winning new york journalist jim stewart leads one to wonder if the answer isn't the fbi. in his gripping narrative stewart answers some of the enduring questions about the mueller probe about why jim comey did what he did during the clinton email investigation and where we go for mueller's failure to curb donald trump of his insatiable appetite for foreign interference. joining our conversation author of the new book "deep state trump: the fbi and the rule of law." first of all this is a fantastic read. it answers so many questions about all the things that we talk about here every day. i wonder if i could just sort of get your thoughts having spent time with some of the people who it would appear to me people like jim comey and andy mccabe sacrificed everything to pull a fire alarm. jim comey when he sort of revealed in testimony and in memos he had written that he'd been asked to take a loyalty oath, that he'd been asked to stop investigating mike flynn, andy mccabe when he was badgered by donald trump about his wife's political ambitions and ultimately f

jim stewart has kindly agreed to stick around with us. jim, it is not a good look for the u.s. a.g.o gather evidence against the home team overseas and not a good look for him to huddle with the founder of fox news during this time. i guess where did the side of this man of the law come from? how did it emerge? >> well, you see his evolution in my story "deep state" and this is now what seems to be the natural culmenation of it. he was once a highly respected attorney general for bush. he writes this incredibly craven memo virtually auditioning to replace sessions once word is sessions will be fired, he wants the attorney general job back. he then gets in there and mischaracterizes the mueller report and rushes to judgment saying there is no underlying crime, therefore, you cannot have an obstruction of justice charge. that's 180 degrees opposite of what the mueller report says. mueller had to come forward and write his own letter saying it was a mischaracterization and now astonishingly, the whistle-blower comes forward and should have handed that over to the fbi and said investiga

joining us is the book's author, "new york times" columnist jim stewart.. >> thank you it feels good to get it out. >> what do you want viewers to know about it? >> let's start with the concept of the deep state. trump has weaponized that and using it as a pejorative as you will see in the pages, you can say there is a deep state and i say thank goodness analyst, the entrenched bureaucracy, all the civil servants who work for the american people, pledge to uphold the constitution. they do not work for the president of the united states for the white house. that is the essence of the rule of law we have always had an independent judiciary, independent justice department and an independent arm of the fbi. trump has attacked that full scale. what does this have to do with the markets? this is the point i want to make today, healthy markets and free markets rest on the rule of law. why is hong kong the financial center of asia ors has been? because it had the british tradition of the rule of law there. you could argue that the s.e.c. is part of the deep state.

ladies and gentlemen, please help me welcome jim stewart. [applause] legendary politics and prose, we still have bookstores like this supporting authors like me he favored a bunch of my work and haunted my journalistic career and they are rudy giuliani who figured in my second book reappears and goes back in deep state. the states. hillary clinton was a central figure in this very prominently back in the state and not as well-known i had a brief period covering none other than donald trump. i was working as a wall street journal reporter 1985 covering the merger acquisitions omitted from the resume he went through a brief unsuccessful period as a corporate raider and this is when he bought the airline and was making threats from other airlines. just as a routine part of my job i called him up and i said can i meet you and interview you and he said definitely, come see me. i want it completely off the record no one must know that you are meeting me so i went to trump tower to the lobby and i was showing his office and we were chatting briefly

please join me in welcoming jim stewart. [applause] >> thank you. thank you for coming. thank you for having me. thank god we still have bookstores like this supporting authors like me who can still go out and get to the bottom of things without fear, without any influence, without threats to be put in jail. as you are going over my increasingly long biography, you left out take few things. three key characters in some way , haunted my journalistic career. they are rudy giuliani who i figured in my second book reappears and, yes, hillary clinton who was a central figure in bloodsport. very prominently back. not as well known, i had a brief period covering none other than donald trump. i was working as a wall street journal reporter. this was in about 1985. omitted from trump's resume, he went through a brief and very unsuccessful. as a corporate raider. this is when he bought the trump shuttle airline. making threats and taking over other airlines. as a routine part of my job i called above and said, can i meet you. can i interview you. come see me, but it must be comple

ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming jim stewart.lause] >> thank you for coming, thank you for having me here at the legendary politics and prose. thank god we still have bookstores like this. supporting authors like me who can still in this country go out and get to the bottom of things. without fear or favor or fear of influence or at least so far, russian type threats are being put in jail. if you are going over my increasingly long biography left out a few things. there's been like three key characters who have figured in much of my work in some ways should i say have haunted my journalistic career and they are rudy giuliani, who figured in my second book the prosecutor is very prominently, reappears in den of thieves and he's back in "deep state". hillary clinton who was a central figure in bloodsport and who, yes, it is very prominently back in "deep state". and not as well known, i had a brief period covering none other than donald trump. i was working as wall street journal reporter in about 1985 and i was covering a merger a

. >> and a surprise winning reporter jim stewart introduced him. a great and vast read.> zuckerberg, also, that was the sort of -- that's not the congressional testimony zuckerberg >> no. that was a great meaningful town hall i want everyone to listen to it. it was more thoughtful than what everyone thinks. not antagonize her more. >> when we come back, we'll watch the markets. dow's up 140 we're back to 2,924. check out our podcast, the opening quell of "squawk on the street." >>> amid all the volatility this week, which s&pers have done the worst? probably not a surprise. etrade, schwab leading the list as zero commissions just took over that industry back in a minute opportunity co. and to manage this risk, the world turns to cme group. we help farmers lock in future prices, banks manage interest rate changes and airlines hedge fuel costs. all so they can manage their risks and move forward. it's simply a matter of following the signs. they all lead here. cme group - how the world advances. >> what's up for tonight >> what's not as bad, like pepsi, starbucks and we ha

>> i have season this is pulitzer prize winning jim stewart, i got the book last night. it's the concept of the federal government is -- is a swamp. >> on tuesday. >> and then if you are going to discredit the justice department in the vacuum, states doing it i remember when eliot spitzer, there you go. >> you end up with a unique situation. >> when he was an attorney, he did it he wanted to regulate federal. >> it makes it more difficult for investors to figure out the outcome. in this case, t-mobile and sprint have been waiting a long time to get their deal together. >> how about federal courts and state court about that johnson & johnson risperdol. >> it's worth re-visiting the old pj pj saga i have been trying to explain to people what's going on there which i'll try to do right now we'll do it in a report. the stock is down 28%. you will take a look at that you may say, well, why is that happening? well, it has to do with a decision by the judge presiding over the bankruptcy right now to open the door to basically a competition in terms of plans to take the company

. >> one of the reasons it is such a good read with jim stewart's -- a lot of people who are really -old out by -- >> elton john. >> i think it is great that -- >> how about farrow. >> they're reading books still ereader didn't become the threat everybody thought. i know people read their books on kindles -- >> it tempered. >> i like to read books. >> i think people are back reading books after a hiatus the millennials, busy camping, taking cruises, taking picks on instagram, they seem to be reading. it is astonishing. >> maybe some bookstores that they can actually buy these books in a couple of other news stories i wanted to hit, mgm not doing much of anything they announced a large deal. $4.25 billion and then they're going to lease back the bellagio blackstone the largest single owner of real estate out there for the most part. and that is something that had been anticipated by the market place and so you see not much of a response there, at least in terms of the significant divestiture for that >> vicci properties did that already. good return. it happened already. mgm i think ha

how would i be able to make a living billionaires >> how would i be able to make a living >> jim stewartend, and talks about the fact that, all right, the bar starts here. does it keep moving down 50, 40, 30, 20, 10 >> i got people who say you don't talk about it enough it is extraordinary. you don't talk about her enough. >> stock market is up 30 plus percent since the election of donald trump that was an important story, his election for the markets >> yes, i think that's not talked enough. there is just tremendous wealth created. i think that you speak to a lot of -- those people are pretty bearish, i speak to. those people feel the trade ends badly. i think the president has the upper hand because of hong kong. people don't want to relate those two. when a general manager of a team can pose a threat to a country, what is that about what happens if lebron james speaks out can you imagine if he speaks out? what happens >> i don't know anything more happens with the nba do you >> nike reportedly taking their houston rockets merchandise out of china stores. nba, by the way, now canceling

stewart: it was very complicated, there was still a great deal of jim crow racial segregation, not just in seven states but northern places as well. aspects of racial segregation that would go unaddressed until the civil rights movement and the post-world war ii era, resulting in famous legislation like brown v. board of education. you are probably aware viewers are aware that that battle continues today in terms of ensuring equality for all in the united states. there was a project in the 1930's that was complicated because hfs radical in the sense that the federal government was paying unemployed writers to collect local histories and local culture, and ended up soliciting from them interviews from former slaves. that meant you had people from dramatically different backgrounds, different racial groups, different ethnic or cultural groups, different educational backgrounds, different socioeconomic classes trying to talk to each other across these divides about the very highly charged topic of slavery and what it meant for african american citizenship in the 1930's. >> what is the gove